Residents Flee Possible Violence In Congo's Sake

Hundreds of residents in the eastern Congo towns of Sake and Minova walked toward a nearby village on Saturday to avoid more fighting between rebels and the army, who they accuse of looting and rapes.

Hundreds of residents in the eastern Congo towns of Sake and Minova walked toward a nearby village on Saturday to avoid more fighting between rebels and the army, who they accuse of looting and rapes.

A resident making the eight kilometer (5 mile) walk to Kirotshe said that soldiers from the U.N. peacekeeping group in Congo, known as MONUSCO, told them to leave Sake.

"They told us the army might attack again at Sake," said the resident who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of her safety. "Soldiers from MONUSCO told us all to go to the hospital."

The U.N. soldiers, however, would not confirm that they had told locals to take refuge in Kirotshe or whether they thought the army would attack.

A surprise attack by the Congolese army on Thursday afternoon pushed the M23 rebels out of Sake for a few hours. By the evening, however, M23 fighters had recovered the town and forced the government troops to flee 25 kilometers (15 miles) south to Minova, on the shore of Lake Kivu.

Locals in Minova on Saturday reported that the retreating army troops had gone on a rampage on Thursday and Friday nights.

"Things are not at all well here," said Mousinganga Siprian, an elderly resident of Minova leaning unsteadily on a makeshift crutch. "There are very many soldiers here now. They have looted, they have killed, they are raping our women."

A U.N. source in Minova confirmed that the government soldiers had looted and raped on both of the nights they had spent in the town since their retreat from Sake, but spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak to the press.

The soldiers milled in the streets of Minova, drinking black banana beer and standing on grassy banks or walking among the local population. Many were drunk and aggressive, and the atmosphere between fighters and civilians was extremely tense. Soldiers approached for comment angrily refused to speak.

The army commander, Gen. Lucien Bahuma, would not comment on the behavior of his troops when contacted by telephone.

Sake residents settled in for their third evening away from their homes on a road running into Goma.

A World Food Program distribution was taking place, but the displaced people on the roadside said they were unsatisfied with the support they were getting.

"They are giving out food but only bit by bit," said Jacqui Nadaje, clutching a bright orange washing bowl full of clothes. "This is the first time (the WFP) has come here. We need more support from these agencies and the international community. We need shelter and water, but above all we need food. We are all very hungry."

Also Saturday, regional leaders met in Uganda to find a solution to the crisis in eastern Congo as the M23 rebel group takes territory from the army and threatens to topple President Joseph Kabila's government.

A previous summit of the regional bloc called the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, or ICGLR, endorsed the creation of a "neutral international force" to police eastern Congo. Tanzania has already offered to contribute some of the 4,000 troops needed, but the force's mandate is not yet clear and funding remains a problem.

Kabila was in Uganda for the talks Saturday, but Rwandan President Paul Kagame was absent. Ugandan officials said M23 representatives were not invited to the summit and denied reports that Jean-Marie Runiga, the M23's political leader, was in the country for separate negotiations with the Ugandan government.

"I have not seen them," Crispus Kiyonga, Uganda's defense minister, who held meetings with some M23 officials before Goma was captured by M23, said of the rebels. Ugandan officials say previous meetings with M23 rebels were held with the knowledge of Kabila, who at first declined to negotiate with the rebels but later changed his stance.

"This is a summit for regional leaders, not a negotiation meeting. The rebels cannot be in the summit," said Okello Oryem, Uganda's deputy minister of foreign affairs.

M23 is made up of hundreds of officers who deserted the Congolese army in April. Since then the rebels have occupied vast swaths of territory in mineral-rich eastern Congo, and their capture of Goma this week put pressure on President Kabila to negotiate with the rebels, who accuse his government of failing to honor the terms of a 2009 peace deal that incorporated them into the national army. The rebels took Goma without much of a battle, with the Congolese army fleeing in disarray and U.N. peacekeepers holding fire.

M23 leaders insist they will attempt to capture the Congolese capital of Kinshasa if Kabila does not negotiate directly with them.